The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa and Europe, dating back at least as early as 3500 BCE. The instrument had great popularity in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, where it evolved into a wide range of variants with new technologies, and was disseminated to Europe's colonies, finding particular popularity in Latin America, although some ancient members of the harp family died out in the Near East and South Asia, descendants of early harps are still played in Myanmar and parts of Africa, and other defunct variants in Europe and Asia have been utilized by musicians in the modern era.

Harps vary globally in many ways; in terms of size, many smaller harps can be played on the lap, whereas larger harps are quite heavy and rest on the floor. Different harps may use strings of catgut, nylon, metal, or some combination. While all harps have a neck, resonator, and strings, frame harps have a pillar at their long end to support the strings, while open harps, such as arch harps and bow harps, do not. Modern harps also vary in techniques used to extend the range and chromaticism (e.g., adding sharps and flats) of the strings, such as adjusting a string's note mid-performance with levers or pedals which modify the pitch. The pedal harp is a standard instrument in the orchestra of the Romantic music era (ca. 1800–1910) and the contemporary music era.

The earliest harps and lyres were found in Sumer, 3500 BC,[2] and several harps were found in burial pits and royal tombs in Ur.[3] The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar can be seen adjacent to the Near East, in the wall paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs in the Nile Valley, which date from as early as 3000 BC. These murals show an instrument that closely resembles the hunter's bow, without the pillar that we find in modern harps. [4] The chang flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about 4000 BC, until the 17th century.

Around 1900 BC arched harps in the Iraq–Iran region were replaced by angular harps with vertical or horizontal sound boxes.[5] By the start of the Common Era, "robust, vertical, angular harps", which had become predominant in the Hellenistic world, were cherished in the Sasanian court; in the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible ("light, vertical, angular harps"); while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production (AD 1300–1600), such light harps were still frequently depicted, although their use as musical instruments was reaching its end.[6]

The works of the Tamil Sangam literature describe the harp and its variants, as early as 200 BC.[7] Variants were described ranging from 14 to 17 strings, and the instrument used by wandering minstrels for accompaniment.[8] Iconographic evidence in of the yaal appears in temple statues dated as early as 500 BC[citation needed] One of the Sangam works, the Kallaadam recounts how the first yaaḻ harp was inspired by an archer's bow, when he heard the musical sound of its twang.[citation needed]

Another early South Asian harp was the ancient veena; unlike the modern instrument of the same name, the ancient veena was a harp vice the modern lute-type instrument. Some Samudragupta gold coins show of the mid-4th century AD show (presumably) the king Samudragupta himself playing the instrument,[9] the ancient veena survives today in Burma, in the form of the saung harp still played there.[10]

The harp was popular in ancient China and neighboring regions, though harps are largely extinct in East Asia in the modern day, the Chinese konghou harp is documented as early as the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC), and became extinct during the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644).[citation needed] A similar harp, the gonghu was played in ancient Korea, documented as early as the Goguryeo period (37 BC – AD 686).[11]

Harps are essentially triangular and made primarily of wood. Strings are made of gut, often replaced in the modern day by nylon, or metal, the top end of each string is secured on the crossbar or neck, where each will have a tuning peg or similar device to adjust the pitch. From the crossbar, the string runs down to the sounding board on the resonating body, where it is secured with a knot; on modern harps the string's hole is protected with an eyelet to limit wear on the wood. It is the distance between the tuning peg and the soundboard, as well as tension and weight of the string, which decide the pitch of the string, the body is hollow, and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound.

The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar, though some earlier harps, such as a "bow harp", lack a pillar, on most harps the sole purpose of the pillar is to hold up the neck against the great strain of the strings. On harps which have pedals (largely the modern concert harp), the pillar is a hollow column and encloses the rods which adjust the pitches, which are levered by pressing pedals at the base of the instrument.

On harps of earlier design, a given string can play only a single note without retuning; in many cases this means such a harp can only play in one key at a time and must be manually retuned to play in another key. Various remedies to this limitation evolved: the addition of extra strings to cover chromatic notes (sometimes in separate or angled rows distinct from the main row of strings), addition of small levers on the crossbar which when actuated raise the pitch of a string by a set interval (usually a semitone), or use of pedals at the base of the instrument which change the pitch of a string when pressed with the foot. These solutions increase the versatility of a harp at the cost of adding complexity, weight, and expense.

While the angle and bow harps held popularity elsewhere, European harps favored the "pillar", a third structural member to support the far ends of the arch and soundbox.[12][13][14] A harp with a triangular three-part frame is depicted on 8th-century Pictish stones in Scotland[12][13] and in manuscripts (e.g. the Utrecht Psalter) from early 9th-century France.[14] The curve of the harp's neck is a result of the proportional shortening of the basic triangular form to keep the strings equidistant; if the strings were proportionately distant they would be farther apart.

As European harps evolved to play more complex music, a key consideration was some way to facilitate the quick changing of a string's pitch to be able to play more chromatic notes. By the Baroque period in Italy and Spain, more strings were added to allow for chromatic notes in more complex harps; in Germany in the second half of the 17th century, diatonic single-row harps were fitted with manually turned hooks which fretted individual strings to raise their pitch by a half step. In the 18th century, a link mechanism was developed connecting these hooks with pedals, leading to the invention of the single-action pedal harp.

The first primitive form of pedal harps was developed in the Tyrol region of Austria. Jacob Hochbrucker was the next to design an improved pedal mechanism around 1720, followed in succession by Krumpholtz, Nadermann, and the Erard company, who came up with the double mechanism, in which a second row of hooks was installed along the neck, capable of raising the pitch of a string by either one or two half steps. While one course of European harps led to greater complexity, resulting largely in the modern pedal harp, other harping traditions maintained simpler diatonic instruments which survived and evolved into modern traditions.

In the Americas, harps are widely but sparsely distributed, except in certain regions where the harp traditions are very strong, such important centres include Mexico, the Andean region, Venezuela and Paraguay. They are derived from the Baroque harps that were brought from Spain during the colonial period.[15] Detailed features vary from place to place.

The Paraguayan harp is that country's national instrument, and has gained a worldwide reputation, with international influences alongside folk traditions. Paraguayan harps have around 36 strings, played with the fingernails, and with a narrowing spacing and lower tension than modern Western harps, and have a wide and deep soundbox which tapers to the top.[16]

The harp is also found in Argentina,[17] though in Uruguay it was largely displaced in religious music by the organ by the end of the 18th century,[18] the harp is historically found in Brazil, but mostly in the south of the country.[19]

Andean harp

The Andean harp (Quechua: arpa), also known as Peruan harp or indigenous harp is widespread among peoples living in highlands of the Andes: Quechua and Aymara, mainly in Peru, and also in Bolivia and Ecuador. Andean harp has relatively large size, its distinguishing feature is significantly increased volume of the resonator box, which gives basses a special richness. Andean harp usually accompanies love dances and songs, such as huayno.[20] One of the most famous performers on the Andean harp was Juan Cayambe (Pimampiro Canton, Imbabura Province, Ecuador[21])

Mexican "jarocha" harp music of Veracruz has also gained some international recognition, evident in the popularity of "la bamba".[original research?] In southern Mexico (Chiapas), there is a very different indigenous style of harp music.[22]

In Venezuela, there are two distinct traditions, the arpa llanera and the arpa central (or arpa mirandina). The modern Venezuelan arpa llanera has 32 strings of nylon (originally, gut), the arpa central is strung with wire in the higher register.[23]

A number of types of harps are found in Africa, predominantly not of the three-sided frame-harp type found in Europe. A number of these, referred to generically as African harps, are bow or angle harps, which lack forepillars joining the neck to the body.

A number of harp-like instruments in Africa are not easily classified with European categories. Instruments like the West African kora and Mauritanian ardin are sometimes labeled as "spike harp", "bridge harp", or harp lute since their construction includes a bridge which holds the strings laterally, vice vertically entering the soundboard.[24]

While lyres and zithers have persisted in the Middle East, most of the true harps of the region have become extinct, though some are undergoing initial revivals, the Turkish çeng was a nine-string harp in the Ottoman Empire which became extinct at the end of the 17th century,[25] but has undergone some revival and evolution since the late 20th century. A similar harp, the changi survives in the Svaneti region of Georgia.[26]

The harp largely became extinct in East Asia by the 17th century; around the year 1000 harps like the vajra began to replace preceding[clarification needed] harps.[28] A few examples survived to the modern era, particularly Burma's saung-gauk, which is considered the national instrument in that country. Though the ancient Chinese konghou has not been directly resurrected, the name has been revived and applied to a modern newly invented instrument based on the Western classical harp, but with the strings doubled back to form two notes per string, allowing advanced techniques such as note-bending.[citation needed]

The concert harp is a technologically advanced instrument, particularly distinguished by its use of "pedals", foot-controlled devices which can alter the pitch of given strings, making it fully chromatic and thus able to play a wide body of classical repertoire. The pedal harp contains seven pedals that each affect the tuning of all strings of one pitch-class, the pedals, from left to right, are D, C, B on the left side and E, F, G, A on the right. Pedals were first introduced in 1697 by Jakob Hochbrucker of Bavaria;[29] in 1811 these were upgraded to the "double action" pedal system patented by Sébastien Erard.[30]

The addition of pedals broadened the harp's abilities, allowing its gradual entry into the classical orchestra, largely beginning in the 19th century, the harp played little or no role in early classical music (being used only a handful of times by major composers such as Mozart and Beethoven), and its usage by Cesar Franck in his Symphony in D minor (1888) was described as "revolutionary" despite some body of prior classical usage.[31] Entering the 20th century, the pedal harp found use outside of classical music, entering jazz with Casper Reardon,[when?]the Beatles 1967 single "She's Leaving Home", and several works by Björk which featured harpist Zeena Parkins.

In the modern era, there is a family of mid-size harps, generally with nylon strings, and optionally with partial or full levers but without pedals, they range from two to six octaves, and are plucked with the fingers using a similar technique to the pedal harp. Though these harps evoke ties to historical European harps, their specifics are modern, and they are frequently referred to broadly as "Celtic" harps due to their region of revival and popular association, or more generically as "folk" harps due to their use in non-classical music, or as "lever" harps to contrast their modifying mechanism with the larger pedal harp.[32]

The modern Celtic harp began to appear in the early 19th century in Ireland, contemporary with the dying out of earlier forms of Gaelic harp. Dublin pedal harp maker John Egan developed a new type of harp which had gut strings and semitone mechanisms like an orchestral pedal harp; it was small and curved like the historical cláirseach or Irish harp, but its strings were of gut and the soundbox was much lighter.[33] In the 1890s a similar new harp was also developed in Scotland as part of a Gaelic cultural revival;[34] in the mid-20th century Jord Cochevelou developed a variant of the modern Celtic harp which he referred to as the "Breton Celtic harp"; his son Alan Stivell was to become the most influential Breton harper, and a strong influence in the broader world of the Celtic harp.

A multi-course harp is a harp with more than one row of strings, as opposed to the more common "single course" harp, on a double-harp, the two rows generally run parallel to each other, one on either side of the neck, and are usually both diatonic (sometimes with levers) with identical notes.

The triple harp originated in Italy in the 16th century, and arrived in Wales in the late 17th century where it established itself in the local tradition as the Welsh harp (telyn deires, "three-row harp"),[35] the triple consists of two outer rows of identical diatonic strings with a third set of chromatic strings between them. These strings are off set to permit the harpist to reach past the outer row and pluck an inner string if a chromatic note is needed.

Some harps, rather than using pedal or lever devices, achieve chromaticity by simply adding additional strings to cover the notes outside their diatonic home scale, the Welsh triple harp is one such instrument, and two other instruments employing this technique are the cross-strung harp and the inline chromatic harp.

The cross-strung harp has one row of diatonic strings, and a separate row of chromatic notes, angled in an "X" shape so that the row which can be played by the right hand at the top may be played by the left hand at the bottom, and vice versa, this variant was first attested as the arpa de dos órdenes ("two-row harp") in Spain and Portugal, in the 17th century.[36]

The inline chromatic harp is generally a single-course harp with all 12 notes of the chromatic scale appearing in a single row. Single course inline chromatic harps have been produced at least since 1902, when Karl Weigel of Hanover patented a model of inline chromatic harp.[37]

Amplified (electro-acoustic) hollow body and solid body electric lever harps are produced by many harpmakers at this time, such as Lyon & Healy of Chicago, Salvi Harps of Italy, and Camac Harps of France. They generally use individual piezo-electrictransducers one per string often in combination with small internal microphones to produce a direct output mixed electrical signal. Hollow body instruments can also be played acoustically, while solid body instruments must be amplified, the late-20th century gravikord is a modern purpose-built electric double harp made of stainless steel based on the traditional West African kora.

The modern English word harp comes from the Old English hearpe; akin to Old High German harpha.[38]

A number of non-harp-like instruments are colloquially referred to as "harps". Chordophones like the aeolian harp (wind harp) and the autoharp (with the piano and harpsichord) are not harps, but zithers, because their strings are not perpendicular to their soundboard. Similarly, the many varieties of harp guitar and harp lute, while chordophones, belong to the lute family and are not true harps. All forms of the lyre and kithara are also not harps, but belong to the fourth family of ancient instruments under the chordophones, the lyres.

The term "harp" has also been applied to many instruments which are not chordophones, the vibraphone was (and is still) sometimes referred to as the "vibraharp," though it has no strings and its sound is produced by striking metal bars. In blues music, the harmonica is often casually referred to as a "blues harp" or "harp", but it is a free reed wind instrument, not a stringed instrument, and is therefore not a true harp, the Jew's harp is neither Jewish nor a harp; it is a plucked idiophone and likewise not a stringed instrument. The laser harp is not a stringed instrument at all, but is a harp-shaped synthesized electronic instrument that has laser beams where harps have strings.

The harp has been used as a political symbol of Ireland for centuries, its origin is unknown but from the evidence of the ancient oral and written literature, it has been present in one form or another since at least the 6th century or before. According to tradition, Brian Boru, High King of Ireland (died at the Battle of Clontarf, 1014) played the harp, as did many of the gentry in the country during the period of the Gaelic Lordship of Ireland (ended c. 1607 with the "Flight of the Earls" following the Elizabethan Wars).[citation needed]

In traditional Gaelic society every clan and chief of any consequence would have a resident harp player who would compose eulogies and elegies (later known as "planxties") in honour of the leader and chief men of the clan, the harp was adopted as a symbol of the Kingdom of Ireland on the coinage from 1542, and in the Royal Standard of King James VI and I in 1603 and continued to feature on all English and United Kingdom Royal Standards ever since, though the styles of the harps depicted differed in some respects. It was also used on the Commonwealth Jack of Oliver Cromwell, issued in 1649 and on the Protectorate Jack issued in 1658 as well as on the Lord Protector's Standard issued on the succession of Richard Cromwell in 1658. The harp is also traditionally used on the flag of Leinster.

In the context of Christianity, heaven is sometimes symbolically depicted as populated by angels playing harps, giving the instrument associations of the sacred and heavenly; in the Bible, Genesis 4:21 says that Jubal, the first musician and son of Lamech, invented the harp and flute.[40][41]

Many depictions of King David in Jewish art have him holding or playing a harp, such as a sculpture outside King David's tomb in Jerusalem, Palestine.

The harp is also used extensively as a corporate logo, by private companies and government organisations, the Irish beer Guinness uses a harp, facing right and less detailed than the version used on the state arms. Relatively new organisations also use the harp, but often modified to reflect a theme relevant to their organisation: Irish airline Ryanair uses a modified harp, and the Irish State Examinations Commission uses it with an educational theme. The harp appears in the logo for League of Ireland football team Finn Harps F.C., Donegal's senior soccer club.

1.
String instrument
–
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks

2.
Chordophone
–
A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. What many would call string instruments are classified as chordophones, violins, guitars, lyres, and harps are examples. However, the word also embraces instruments that many would hesitate to call string instruments, such as the musical bow, Hornbostel-Sachs divides chordophones into two main groups, instruments without a resonator as an integral part of the instrument, and instruments with such a resonator. Most western instruments fall into the group, but the piano. Hornbostel and Sachs criterion for determining which sub-group an instrument falls into is that if the resonator can be removed without destroying the instrument, then it is classified as 31. This is not true of the violin, because the passes over a bridge located on the resonator box. Electric string instruments often have a pickup that produces a signal that can be amplified. The electric guitar is the most common example, but many other chordophones use pickups—including mandolins, violins, when a chordophone is played, the strings vibrate and interact with each other. There is usually something that makes the sound resonate, such as the body of a guitar or violin, the strings are set into motion by either plucking, strumming, by rubbing with a bow, or by striking. Common chordophones are the banjo, cello, double bass, dulcimer, guitar, harp, lute, piano, sitar, ukulele, viola and violin

3.
Pizzicato
–
Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies depending on the type of stringed instrument. On bowed string instruments it is a method of playing by plucking the strings with the fingers and this produces a very different sound from bowing, short and percussive rather than sustained. On a keyboard string instrument, such as the piano, pizzicato may be employed as one of the variety of techniques involving direct manipulation of the strings known collectively as string piano. On the guitar, it is a form of plucking. For details of technique, see palm mute. When a string is struck or plucked, as with pizzicato and this complex timbre is called inharmonicity. The inharmonicity of a string depends on its characteristics, such as tension, composition, diameter. The first recognised use of pizzicato in classical music is found in Tobias Humes Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke, wherein he instructs the viola da gamba player to use pizzicato. Another early use is found in Claudio Monteverdis Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, later, in 1756, Leopold Mozart in his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule instructs the player to use the index finger of the right hand. This has remained the most usual way to execute a pizzicato, the bow is held in the hand at the same time unless there is enough time to put it down and pick it up again between bowed passages. In jazz and bluegrass, and the few popular music styles which use double bass, in classical double bass playing, pizzicato are often performed with the bow being held in the hand, as such, the string is usually only plucked with a single finger. In contrast, in jazz, bluegrass, and other non-Classical styles, in classical music, however, string instruments are most usually played with the bow, and composers give specific indications to play pizzicato where required. Pieces in classical music that are played entirely pizzicato include, J. S. Bach, johann Strauss II, Neue Pizzicato Polka. 4 Benjamin Britten, the movement of the Simple Symphony Leroy Anderson. He also included pizzicato in the movement of Winter from The Four Seasons. In music notation, a composer will normally indicate the performer should use pizzicato with the abbreviation pizz, a return to bowing is indicated by the Italian term arco. If a string player has to play pizzicato for a period of time

4.
Range (music)
–
In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range, the range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. The terms sounding range, written range, designated range, duration range, a piccolo, for example, typically has a sounding range one octave higher than its written range. The designated range is the set of notes the player should or can achieve while playing, all instruments have a designated range, and all pitched instruments have a playing range. Timbre, dynamics, and duration ranges are interrelated and one may achieve registral range at the expense of timbre, the designated range is thus the range in which a player is expected to have comfortable control of all aspects. The duration range is the difference between the shortest and longest rhythm used, dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part or piece of music. Although woodwind instruments and string instruments have no upper limit to their range. Brass instruments, on the hand, can play beyond their designated ranges. Notes lower than the brass instruments designated range are called pedal tones, the playing range of a brass instrument depends on both the technical limitations of the instrument and the skill of the player. Classical arrangements seldom make woodwind or brass instruments play beyond their designed range, string musicians play the bottom of their ranges very frequently, but the top of a string instruments range is rather fuzzy, and it is unusual for a string player to exceed the designated range. It is quite rare for wind musicians to play the extremes of their instruments, the most common exception is that in many 20th century works, pedal tones are called for in bass trombones. This chart uses standard numberings for octaves where middle C corresponds to C4, in the MIDI language middle C is referred to as MIDI note number 60. The lowest note that an organ can sound is C−1. However, if acoustic combination counts, the lowest note is C−2, *This chart only displays down to C0, though some pipe organs, such as the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ, extend down to C−1. Also, the frequency of the subcontrabass tuba is B♭−1

5.
Pedal harp
–
The pedal harp is a large and technically modern harp, designed primarily for classical music and played either solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. The pedal harp is a descendant of ancient harps. It typically has a range of six and a half octaves, weighs about 36 kilograms, is about 1.85 metres high, has a depth of 1 metre, and is 55 centimetres wide at the bass end of the soundboard. The notes range from three octaves below middle C♭ to three and a half octaves above, usually ending on G♯, using octave designations, the range is C♭1 to G♯7. At least one manufacturer gives the harp a 48th string, a high A♭ giving the instrument a range of C♭1 to A♯7, the two lowest strings, C♭1 and D♭1, are not affected by the pedal mechanism. Their pitch must be adjusted in advance for the whole piece and it cant be changed while playing. A pedal harp typically has six and a half octaves, weighs about 36 kg, is about 1.8 m high, has a depth of 1.2 m, and is 55 cm wide at the bass end of the soundboard. The notes range from three octaves below middle C to three and a half octaves above, usually ending on G, the tension of the strings on the soundboard is roughly equal to a ton. The lowest strings are made of copper or steel-wound nylon, the strings of gut. The D, E, G, A, B strings are colored white while the C strings are colored red. The strings are tuned to all flat pitches, that is. The concert harp is a pedal harp, pedals were first used in 1697. Pedal harps use the action of pedals to change the pitches of the strings. There are seven pedals, each affecting the tuning of all strings of one pitch-class, the pedals, in order from left to right, are D, C, B and E, F, G, A. Each pedal is attached to a rod or cable within the column of the harp, when a pedal is moved with the foot, small discs at the top of the harp rotate. The discs are studded with two pegs that pinch the string as they turn, shortening the length of the string. In the top position no pegs are in contact with the string and all notes are flat, thus the harps native tuning is to the scale of C♭ major. In the middle position the top disc presses its pins against the string, resulting in a natural, giving the scale of C♮ major if all pedals are set in the middle position

6.
Musical instrument
–
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes

7.
Lyre
–
The lyre is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences, the word comes via Latin from the Greek, the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning lyrists and written in the Linear B script. The lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, date to 2500 BC, the earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, the recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. However, later lyres were played with a bow in Europe, one example from Wales that has been resurrected recently is the crwth. In organology, lyres are defined as yoke lutes, being lutes in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the plane as the sound-table. A classical lyre has a body or sound-chest, which. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke, an additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge, according to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards, Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all, from the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre, hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself, locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia bordering the Lydian empire, some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization

8.
Yazh
–
The yazh is a harp used in ancient Tamil music which was the ancestor of modern-day veena. It was named so, because the tip of stem of this instrument was carved into the head of the mythological animal Yali, the yazh was an open-stringed polyphonous instrument, with gut strings with a wooden boat-shaped skin-covered resonator and an ebony stem. Many major Tamil classical literary masterpieces written during Sangam period dating back 200 BC have mentioned the yazh, silappatikaram mentions four types of defects in yazh. Other Tamil literature which have mentions on yazh are Seevaga Sindhamani, Yazh are seen in sculptures in the Darasuram and Thirumayam temples in Tamil Nadu and also in Amaravathi village, Guntur district. Swami Vipulananda has written a book of research in Tamil called the Yazh Nool. The city of Jaffna is known in Tamil as Yazhpanam, a Sri Lankan Tamil legend recounts that a blind man Panan played on the Yazh so beautiful that he was given a land from a king, which he called after himself, literally meaning town of harper

9.
Zither
–
Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The word zither is a German rendering of the Latin word cithara, historically, it has been applied to any instrument of the cittern family, or an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat body – similar to a psaltery. This article describes the second variety, like a guitar or lute, a zithers body serves as a resonating chamber, but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty, in modern common usage the term zither refers to three specific instruments, the concert zither, its variant the Alpine zither, and the chord zither. Concert and Alpine zithers are found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia. Emigration from these areas during the 19th century introduced the concert, chord zithers similar to the instrument in the photograph also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th century. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern and it is not fully understood how zitter or zither came to be applied to the instruments in this article as well as German varieties of the cittern. The Hornbostel-Sachs system, an academic instrument classification method, also uses the term zither, pedal steel guitars, lap guitars, and keyboard instruments like the clavichord, harpsichord and piano also fall within this broad categorical use. The word has also used in conjunction with brand varieties of other string instruments. The earliest known surviving instrument of the family is a Chinese guqin. Increasing interest in music has brought wider recognition to these other zither family members. Many of these instruments have been sampled electronically, and are available in instrument banks for music synthesizers, some of these employed movable bridges similar to the Japanese koto, used for retuning the drone strings. The Alpine Scheitholt furnishes an example of this type of European zither. By the late 18th century, two varieties of European concert zither had developed, known as the Salzburg zither. Both styles are found in concert zithers today, although the Salzburg style has become by far the most common. The zither became a folk music instrument in Bavaria and Austria and. Viennese zitherist Johann Petzmayer became one of the outstanding virtuosi on these early instruments and his ideas were not, however, widely accepted until 1862, when luthier Max Amberger of Munich fabricated a new zither based on Weigels design. At this point the zither had reached something very close to its modern concert form, within a relatively short time the new design had largely replaced the old Volkszither throughout central Europe, particularly in the Alpine countries

10.
Stringed musical instrument
–
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks

11.
String (music)
–
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a material that a musical instrument holds under tension so that they can vibrate freely. Wound strings have a core of one material, with an overwinding of other materials and this is to make the string vibrate at the desired pitch, while maintaining a low profile and sufficient flexibility for playability. This enabled stringed instruments to be made with less thick bass strings, on string instruments that the player plucks or bows directly, this enabled instrument makers to use thinner strings for the lowest-pitched strings, which made the lower-pitch strings easier to play. The end of the string that mounts to the tuning mechanism is usually plain. Depending on the instrument, the other, fixed end may have either a plain, loop. When a ball or loop is used with a guitar, this ensures that the string stays fixed in the bridge of the guitar, when a ball or loop is used with a violin-family instrument, this keeps the string end fixed in the tailpiece. Fender Bullet strings have a cylinder for more stable tuning on guitars equipped with synchronized tremolo systems. Strings for some instruments may be wrapped with silk at the ends to protect the string, the color and pattern of the silk often identifies attributes of the string, such as manufacturer, size, intended pitch, etc. There are several varieties of wound strings available, the simplest wound strings are roundwound—with round wire wrapped in a tight spiral around either a round or hexagonal core. Such strings are usually simple to manufacture and the least expensive and they have several drawbacks, however, Roundwound strings have a bumpy surface profile that produce friction on the players fingertips. This causes squeaking sounds when the fingers slide over the strings. Roundwound strings higher friction surface profile may hasten fingerboard and fret wear, when the core is round, the winding is less secure and may rotate freely around the core, especially if the winding is damaged after use. Flatwound strings also have either a round or hex core, however, the winding wire has a rounded square cross-section that has a shallower profile when tightly wound. This makes for more playing, and decreased wear for frets. Squeaking sounds due to fingers sliding along the strings are also decreased significantly, flatwound strings also have a longer playable life because of smaller grooves for dirt and oil to build up in. On the other hand, flatwound strings sound less bright than roundwounds, flatwounds also usually cost more than roundwounds because of less demand, less production, and higher overhead costs. Manufacturing is also difficult, as precise alignment of the flat sides of the winding must be maintained

12.
Sound board (music)
–
A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. Pianos, guitars, banjos, and many other stringed instruments incorporate soundboards, the resonant properties of the sound board and the interior of the instrument greatly increase the loudness of the vibrating strings. The sound board operates by the principle of forced vibration, the string gently vibrates the board, and despite their differences in size and composition, makes the board vibrate at exactly the same frequency. This produces the sound as the string alone, differing only in timbre. The string would produce the amount of energy without the board present, but the greater surface area of the sound board moves a greater volume of air. Sound boards are made of wood, though other materials are used. Wooden sound boards typically have one or more sound holes of various shapes, round, oval, or F-holes appear on many plucked instruments, such as guitars and mandolins. F-holes are usual in violin family instruments, the upper surface of the sound board, depending on the instrument, is called a top plate, table, sound-table, or belly. It is usually made of a softwood, often spruce, the rear part, known as the back, typically does not contain sound holes and is made of a hardwood such as maple or pear. In a grand piano, the board is part of the case. In an upright piano, the board is a large vertical plate at the back of the instrument. The harp has a sound board below the strings, more generally, any hard surface can act as a sound board. An example is when someone strikes a tuning fork and holds it against a top to amplify its sound. Ernst Chladni Harpsichord Piano Piano acoustics Soundboard Wood Preparation

13.
Neck (music)
–
The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, banjos, ukuleles, lutes, the family. Necks are also a part of certain woodwind instruments, like for instance the saxophone. The word for neck also appears in other languages in musical instructions. The terms include manche, manico, and Hals, the neck of a guitar includes the guitars frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock, and truss rod. The wood used to make the fretboard will usually differ from the wood in the rest of the neck, the rigidity of the neck with respect to the body of the guitar is one determinant of an instruments quality. The shape of the necks cross-section can also vary from a curve to a more pronounced V shape. Marker dots on the face of the fretboard are usually placed at frets 3,5,7,9,12,15,17,19,21,24. Its also common there are marker dots on the upper side of the neck, near the edge of the fretboard. Sometimes the dots are replaced with bars, the octave positions having a wider bar, classical guitars almost never feature position markers, especially on the fretboards face, whereas electric guitars usually do. 2) Electric guitars also sport an extended range, due to the above reason. Typically, up to 24 frets are used, 3) Electric guitars vary greatly in terms of scale length, depth of lower and - if present - upper rout and where these connect to the neck at its heel, and number of frets. In contrast, classical guitar dimensions are standardised, with the 12th fret aligning with the neck-end of the body, use of only 19 frets, the neck of a violin is usually maple with a flamed figure compatible with that of the ribs and back. The shape of the neck and fingerboard affect how easily the violin may be played, many authentic old instruments have had their necks reset to a slightly increased angle, and lengthened by about a centimeter. The neck graft allows the original scroll to be kept with a Baroque violin when bringing its neck to conformance with modern standard, the neck of a lute is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Saxophone necks are made from brass, are detachable and either straight or curved. The method of connecting the neck to the body of the instrument varies according by instrument and this ranges from necks that are simply screwed onto the body of the instrument to various types of glued joints. This is typically used on acoustic and hollow-body electric guitars, with a simpler mortise and tenon joint, which is similar to a dovetail joint, except that the tenon is straight instead of tapered

14.
Acoustic resonance
–
Acoustic resonance is a phenomenon where acoustic systems amplify sound waves whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration. An acoustically resonant object usually has more than one resonance frequency and it will easily vibrate at those frequencies, and vibrate less strongly at other frequencies. It will pick out its resonance frequency from a complex excitation, in effect, it is filtering out all frequencies other than its resonance. Acoustic resonance is also important for hearing, for example, resonance of a stiff structural element, called the basilar membrane within the cochlea of the inner ear allows hair cells on the membrane to detect sound. Like mechanical resonance, acoustic resonance can result in failure of the vibrator. The classic example of this is breaking a glass with sound at the precise resonant frequency of the glass. In musical instruments, strings under tension, as in lutes, harps, guitars, pianos, violins and so forth, have resonant frequencies directly related to the mass, length, and tension of the string. The wavelength that will create the first resonance on the string is equal to twice the length of the string, higher resonances correspond to wavelengths that are integer divisions of the fundamental wavelength. The corresponding frequencies are related to the v of a wave traveling down the string by the equation f = n v 2 L where L is the length of the string. Higher tension and shorter lengths increase the resonant frequencies, when the string is excited with an impulsive function, the string vibrates at all the frequencies present in the impulse. Those frequencies that are not one of the resonances are quickly filtered out—they are attenuated—and all that is left is the vibrations that we hear as a musical note. String resonance occurs on string instruments, strings or parts of strings may resonate at their fundamental or overtone frequencies when other strings are sounded. For example, an A string at 440 Hz will cause an E string at 330 Hz to resonate, the resonance of a tube of air is related to the length of the tube, its shape, and whether it has closed or open ends. Musically useful tube shapes are conical and cylindrical, a pipe that is closed at one end is said to be stopped while an open pipe is open at both ends. Modern orchestral flutes behave as open pipes, clarinets and lip-reed instruments behave as closed cylindrical pipes, and saxophones, oboes. Vibrating air columns also have resonances at harmonics, like strings, an open tube is a tube in which both ends are open. The tube resonates at many frequencies or notes and its lowest resonance occurs at the same frequency as a closed tube of half its length. An open tube will resonate if there is a displacement antinode at each open end and these displacement antinodes are places where there is a maximum movement of air in and out of the ends of the tube

15.
Chromaticism
–
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism, chromatic elements are considered elaborations of or substitutions for diatonic scale members. Chromaticism is almost by definition an alteration of, an interpolation in or deviation from this basic diatonic organization, though these styles/methods continue to incorporate tonality or tonal elements, often the trends that led to these methods were abandoned, such as modulation. David Cope describes three forms of chromaticism, modulation, borrowed chords from secondary keys, and chromatic chords such as augmented sixth chords, the total chromatic is the collection of all twelve equally tempered pitch classes of the chromatic scale. Similarly, a chord is one which includes one or more such notes. A chromatic scale is one which proceeds entirely by semitones, so dividing the octave into twelve equal steps of one semitone each, linear chromaticism, is used in jazz, All improvised lines. will include non-harmonic, chromatic notes. In other words, at least one note of the chord is chromatically altered, any chord that is not chromatic is a diatonic chord. Examples, ♭II in first inversion is called the Neapolitan sixth chord, for example in C Major, F–A♭–D♭. The Neapolitan Sixth chord resolves to the V, the ♯IV diminished chord is the Sharpened subdominant with diminished seventh chord. The ♯IV diminished chord resolves to the V, the ♯IV can also be understood as the tonicization of V where it functions as viio7 of the V chord, written viio7/V. ♭VI, The Augmented sixth chord resolves to the V, in music theory, passus duriusculus is a Latin term which refers to chromatic line, often a bassline, whether descending or ascending. From the late 16th century onward, chromaticism has come to symbolize intense emotional expression in music, the chromatic symbolizing darkness doubt and grief and the diatonic light, affirmation and joy—this imagery has hardly changed for three centuries. Nevertheless the convention is a one and the emotional associations evoked by chromaticism have endured and indeed strengthened over the years. The rich harmonization of a chromatic scale in the Sleep Motif from Wagners opera Die Walkure. Donington speaks of this musics slow chromatic drift and its modulations as elusive as the drift into sleep itself. Chromaticism is often associated with dissonance, in the 16th century the repeated melodic semitone became associated with weeping, see, passus duriusculus, lament bass, and pianto. For instance, Catherine Clément calls the chromaticism in Wagners Isolde feminine stink, 20th-century music – Classical Passus duriusculus, Bach-Cantatas. com

16.
Orchestra
–
The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus. A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called an orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played. The term chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer, the typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler. Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, the conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The first violin, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians, the typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the instruments in each group. Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles, a chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, the so-called standard complement of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven. The composers instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, the exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No,4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral palette in Symphonies 3,5,6, the third horn in the Eroica Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of choral brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, for several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethovens well-established model, with few exceptions. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various instruments are called for occasionally. These include the guitar, heckelphone, flugelhorn, cornet, harpsichord. Saxophones, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores.6 and 9 and William Waltons Belshazzars Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked tenor tuba, including Gustav Holsts The Planets, cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussys La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz

17.
Romantic music era
–
Romantic music is an era of Western classical music that began in the late 18th or early 19th century. In the Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional, expanding to encompass literary, artistic, famous early Romantic composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini, and Berlioz. The late 19th century saw an expansion in the size of the orchestra and in the dynamic range. Also, public concerts became a key part of middle class society, in contrast to earlier periods. Famous composers from the half of the century include Johann Strauss II, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi. A prominent mark of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by such figures as Dvořák, Sibelius, other prominent late-century figures include Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Rachmaninoff and Franck. The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the half of the 18th century in Europe. In part, it was a revolt against social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography and education. One of the first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry, in the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to the later works of Haydn and Mozart. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music was brought to the centre of musical Romanticism, the attributes have also been criticized for being too vague. For example, features of the ghostly and supernatural could apply equally to Mozarts Don Giovanni from 1787, events and changes that happen in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events always affect music. For example, the Industrial Revolution was in effect by the late 18th century. This event had a profound effect on music, there were major improvements in the mechanical valves. The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease, another development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived on the patronage of the aristocracy, many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composers, on the hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers. Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar, showed the world that there should be no segregation of musical tastes, during the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose

18.
Sasanian Empire
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories

19.
Bishapur
–
Bishapur was an ancient city in Iran on the ancient road between Persis and Elam. The road linked the Sassanid capitals Estakhr and Ctesiphon and it is located south of modern Faliyan in the Kazerun County of Pars Province, Iran. Bishapur was built near a crossing and at the same site there is also a fort with rock-cut reservoirs. The name Bishapur derives from Bay-Šāpūr, which means Lord Shapur, in his native province of Fars, he built a new capital that would measure up to his ambitions, Bishapur, Shapurs City. Outside the city, Shapur decorated the sides of the Bishapur River gorge with huge historical reliefs commemorating his triple triumph over Rome. One of these reliefs, in a shape, has rows of registers with files of soldiers and horses. The city, as the dam bridge in Shushtar, was built by Roman soldiers who had been captured after Valerians defeat in 260. However, it was not a new settlement, archaeologists have found remains from the Parthian. The city remained important until the Arabian invasions and the rise of Islam in the quarter of the 7th century. There were still living there in the 10th century. The main part of the excavations took place in the royal sector, a fire altar, sometimes interpreted as a shrine to Anahita, was erected near the palace. In the center there is a space with eight large square exedrae decorated with 64 alcoves. The French excavators believed it had covered with a dome roof. To the west lies a courtyard decorated with mosaics, to the east and its walls must have been covered with small stucco ornaments, rows of medallions, bands of foliage, and topped with merlons inherited from Achaemenid architecture. All these decorative techniques were used after the Islamic conquest of Iran. The floor was paved with marble slabs, with a mosaic border. Along the walls runs a band featuring a series of heads and masks, in a frontal or profile view. At the top of each there was a picture of women naked under their transparent veils, courtesans, musicians, dancers, women twisting garlands

20.
Sumer
–
Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Proto-writing in the dates back to c.3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and date back to 3300 BC, modern historians have suggested that Sumer was first permanently settled between c.5500 and 4000 BC by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language, an agglutinative language isolate. These conjectured, prehistoric people are now called proto-Euphrateans or Ubaidians, some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language. Reliable historical records begin much later, there are none in Sumer of any kind that have dated before Enmebaragesi. Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, todays Persian Gulf region, Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period, continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods. During the 3rd millennium BC, a cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians, who spoke a language isolate, and Akkadian-speakers, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the 3rd millennium BC as a Sprachbund, Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC, but Sumerian continued as a sacred language. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Neo-Sumerian Empire or Third Dynasty of Ur approximately 2100-2000 BC, the term Sumerian is the common name given to the ancient non-Semitic-speaking inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Sumer, by the East Semitic-speaking Akkadians. The Sumerians referred to themselves as ùĝ saĝ gíg ga, phonetically /uŋ saŋ gi ga/, literally meaning the black-headed people, the Akkadian word Shumer may represent the geographical name in dialect, but the phonological development leading to the Akkadian term šumerû is uncertain. Hebrew Shinar, Egyptian Sngr, and Hittite Šanhar, all referring to southern Mesopotamia, in the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city. The Sumerian city-states rose to power during the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Akkadian Empire in the 23rd century BC. Following the Gutian period, there is a brief Sumerian Renaissance in the 21st century BC, the Amorite dynasty of Isin persisted until c.1700 BC, when Mesopotamia was united under Babylonian rule. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian population, 2500–2334 BC Akkadian Empire period, c. 2218–2047 BC Ur III period, c, 2047–1940 BC The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. It appears that this culture was derived from the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and it is not known whether or not these were the actual Sumerians who are identified with the later Uruk culture

21.
Ur
–
Ur was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in south Iraqs Dhi Qar Governorate. The city dates from the Ubaid period circa 3800 BC, and is recorded in history as a City State from the 26th century BC. The site is marked by the restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur. The temple was built in the 21st century BC, during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the Assyrian born last king of Babylon. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres northwest to southeast by 800 metres northeast to southwest, archaeologists have discovered the evidence of an early occupation at Ur during the Ubaid period. These early levels were sealed off with a deposit of soil that was interpreted by excavators of the 1920s as evidence for the Great Flood of the Book of Genesis. The further occupation of Ur only becomes clear during its emergence in the third millennium BC, the third millennium BC is generally described as the Early Bronze Age of Mesopotamia, which ends approximately after the demise of the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 21st century BC. There are two sources which inform scholars about the importance of Ur during the Early Bronze Age. The first is a body of cuneiform documents, mostly from the empire of the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur. This was the most centralized bureaucratic state the world had yet known, concerning the earlier centuries, the Sumerian King List provides a tentative political history of ancient Sumer. The second source of information is archaeological work in modern Iraq, although the early centuries are still poorly understood, the archaeological discoveries have shown unequivocally that Ur was a major urban center on the Mesopotamian plain. Especially the discovery of the Royal Tombs have confirmed its splendour and this wealth, unparalleled up to then, is a testimony of Urs economic importance during the Early Bronze Age. Archaeological research of the region has contributed greatly to our understanding of the landscape. Imports to Ur came from parts of the world. The imported objects include precious metals such as gold and silver and we know that Ur was the most important port on the Persian Gulf, which extended much further inland than it does today. All the wealth came to Mesopotamia by sea had to pass through Ur. So far evidence for the earliest periods of the Early Bronze Age in Mesopotamia is very limited, Mesh-Ane-pada is the first king mentioned in the Sumerian King List, and appears to have lived in the 26th century BC. That Ur was an important urban centre already then seems to be indicated by a type of cylinder seal called the City Seals and these seals contain a set of proto-cuneiform signs which appear to be writings or symbols of the name of city-states in ancient Sumer

22.
Ancient Egypt
–
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today

23.
Nile
–
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta

24.
Chang (instrument)
–
The chang is a Persian musical instrument similar to harp. It was very popular and used widely during the times of ancient Persia, the chang has appeared in paintings and wall art in Persia since its introduction in about 4000 B. C. In these paintings and mosaics, the chang went from the arched harp to an angular harp in the early 1900s B. C. with vertical or horizontal sound boxes. By the beginning of the Common Era, the chang had changed shape to be less of an instrument and more of a large, Hellenistic. Sassanian courts were enamored with the more Hellenistic chang and increased its popularity, but by the end of the Sasanian period, the chang had been redesigned to be as light as possible. Becoming more elegant, the chang lost much of its rigidity and structural soundness, the chang that is used today resembles the last documented transformation. In medieval Azerbaijan, the chang had 18-24 strings but varies based on how far the chang dates back. In the design of some ancient changs, sheep skin or goat skin was used to amplify the sound making it closer to an eastern harp. In modern days the chang is made out of string or the tail of a horse. The past structure of the chang was typically goat or sheep skin, the skins used on the chang also give it a different sound. The chang was predominantly played by women during ancient times, however, the chang is being revived and is now starting to make its way back into the field of contemporary Persian music. There are records from as far back as 4000 B. C. that depict pictures of the chang being played, along with other instruments and a singer. Since the playing style of the chang does not share any similarities with other Persian instruments, it is an instrument to pick up, play. As a result, the number of players is small. There are a few players of the chang including Mrs. Parvin Ruhi. Today the chang is played in ensembles, such as religious ceremonies and parties. In recent years, the Iranian scholars and instrument makers have been trying to revive the ancient chang back to its former glory, the chang is also a name given to the fangxiang, a Chinese metallophone played in China since ancient times. The Uzbek chang is a dulcimer, similar to the Santur

25.
Sangam literature
–
The Sangam litterature is the ancient Tamil literature of the period in the history of ancient southern India spanning from c.300 BCE to 300 CE. This collection contains 2381 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, Sangam literature is primarily secular, dealing with everyday themes in a Tamilakam context. The poems belonging to Sangam literature were composed by Tamil poets and these poems were later collected into various anthologies, edited, and with colophons added by anthologists and annotators around 1000 AD. Sangam literature fell out of memory soon thereafter, until they were rediscovered in the 19th century by scholars such as Arumuga Navalar, C. W. Thamotharampillai. Sangam literature deals with emotional and material such as love, war, governance, trade. The Indologist Kamil Zvelebil quotes A. K. Ramanujan, In their antiquity and in their contemporaneity, there is not much else in any Indian literature equal to these quiet and these poems are not just the earliest evidence of the Tamil genius. The available literature from this period was categorized and compiled in the 10th century into two categories based roughly on chronology, the categories are patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku comprising ettuthogai and the pattuppāṭṭu and patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku. Sangam poems falls into two categories, the field, and the outer field as described even in the first available Tamil grammar. The inner field topics refer to personal or human aspects, such as love and intimate relationships, the outer field topics discuss all other aspects of human experience such as heroism, courage, ethics, benevolence, philanthropy, social life, and customs. The division into agam and puram is not rigid, but depends upon the interpretation used in a specific context, Sangam literature illustrates the thematic classification scheme first described in the Tolkāppiyam. The classification ties the emotions involved in poetry to a specific landscape. These are, kuṟiñci, mountainous regions, mullai, forests, marutam, agricultural land, neytal coastal regions, in addition to the landscape based tiṇais, kaikkiLai and perunthinai are used for unsolicited love and unsuited love respectively. According to the compilers of the Sangam works such as Nakkeeran, the Tamil Sangams were academies, the legends claim that the Pandyan dynasty of the mythical cities of South Madurai, Kapatapuram, and Madurai, patronized the three Sangams. The word Sangam is probably of Indo-Aryan origin, coming from sangha, noted historians like Kamil Zvelebil have stressed that the use of Sangam literature to describe this corpus of literature is a misnomer and Classical literature should be used instead. They painstakingly collected and catalogued numerous manuscripts in various stages of deterioration, Navalar and Pillai hailed from Jaffna. Navalar brought the first Sangam text into print, this was the Thirumurukaattuppadai of Pattupattu, Pillai brought out the first of the Eight Anthologies of the Sangam classics, the Kaliththokai, in 1887. Swaminathaiyar published his first print of Paththupattu in 1889 and they published more than 100 works in all, including minor poems. J V Chellaiah of Jaffna College did the translation of the Pattuppāṭṭu in English in 1945

26.
Ancient veena
–
The ancient veena is an early Indian arched harp, not to be confused with the modern Indian veena which is a type of lute. The instrument is attested on a coin of the Gupta Empire from the mid-300s CE. But the early veenas could be plucked string instruments of any type, one of early veenas used in India from early times, until the Gupta period and later was an instrument of the type of the harp and more precisely of the arched harp. Judith Becker, The Migration of the Arched Harp from India to Burma, The Galpin Society Journal,20, pp. 17–23 Terry E. Miller and Sean Williams. The Garland handbook of Southeast Asian music

27.
Samudragupta
–
Samudragupta was the fourth ruler of the Gupta Empire and the son and successor of Chandragupta I. Much of the knowledge of Samudraguptas military exploits comes from the Allahabad Pillar of Ashoka which includes a prashasti extolling the deeds, Samudragupta was the son of Chandragupta I and the Lichchhavi princess, Kumaradevi. He is believed to have been his fathers chosen successor even though he had several elder brothers, therefore, some believe that after the death of Chandragupta I, there was a struggle for succession in which Samudragupta prevailed. It is said that Samudragupta became the ruler after subduing his rival, Kacha, Samudragupta is depicted on his coins both as a muscular warrior flaunting the marks of hundreds of wounds received in battle as well as a poet and a musician. His reign marked the beginning of what is referred to as the golden age of Indian history. Chandragupta I, a Magadha king, was the ruler of the Gupta Dynasty and married a Lichhavi princess. This enabled him to gain a hold over the Ganges river-basin and he ruled from his capital at Pataliputra for about ten years in north-central India with his son, Samudragupta, as an apprentice. After his death, Samudragupta assumed the throne and did not rest until he had conquered almost the whole of India and his reigning period may be described as a vast military campaign. To begin with, he attacked the kingdoms of Ahichchhatra. He conquered the whole of Bengal, some kingdoms in Nepal and he absorbed some tribal states like the Malvas, the Yaudheyas, the Arjunayanas, the Abhiras and the Maduras. The rulers of what is now Afghanistan and Kashmir were also added to the empire, the main source of Samudraguptas history is an inscription engraved on the Allahabad pillar. In this inscription is detailed Samudraguptas conquests, the inscription to Samudraguptas martial exploits states that its author is Harisena, who was an important poet of Samudraguptas court. Eran Inscription of Samudragupta presently stored in Kolkata National Museum, the beginning of Samudraguptas reign was marked by the defeat of his immediate neighbours, Achyuta, ruler of Ahichchhatra, and Nagasena. Following this Samudragupta began a campaign against the kingdoms to the south and this southern campaign took him south along the Bay of Bengal. Here, however, he did not attempt to direct control. After capturing his enemies he reinstated them as kings, an act which is a testament to his abilities as a statesman. His ambition was inspired by becoming Raja Chakravarti or greatest emperor and Ekrat, in the North, he adopted the policy of Digvijaya which meant the conquest and annexation of all territories. In the South, his policy was Dharma Vijaya which meant conquest, Samudragupta was chosen as emperor by his father over other contenders and apparently had to repress revolts in the early years of his rule

28.
Saung
–
The saung is an arched harp used in traditional Burmese music. The saung is regarded as a musical instrument of Burma. The saung is unique in that it is a very ancient harp tradition and is said to be the only surviving harp in Asia. The Burmese harp is classified as an arched horizontal harp since the body is more horizontal as opposed to the Western harp. The main parts of the harp are the body, the curved neck, carved out of the root of a tree. The top of the body is covered with a tightly stretched deer hide. The standard dimensions of the saung are 80×16×16 centimetres, the neck terminates in a highly decorated representation of the bo tree leaf. The whole of the body is decorated with pieces of mica, glass, gilt. The ends of the strings on the harp is decorated with red cotton tassels, the saungs strings are made of silk or nylon. The thirteen to sixteen strings of the harp angle upwards from the bar to the string bindings on the lower part of the curved arch of the neck. Traditionally, tuning was accomplished by twisting and adjusting the string bindings, recently constructed harps have machine heads or tuning pegs to make tuning easier. The traditional silk strings have also been supplanted by nylon strings, a full-sized harp has a body of about 80 cm long,16 cm wide, and 16 cm deep, and the arch rises about 60 cm from the body. Smaller harps have been made for smaller players, the harp is played by sitting on the floor with the body in the lap, and the arch on the left. The strings are plucked with the right hand fingers from the outside, the left hand is used to dampen the strings to promote clarity and produce staccato notes. Stopped tones are produced by using left thumbnail to press against the string from the inside to increase its tension, the Burmese harp is a very ancient instrument. The earliest archaeological evidence of the harp is at the Bawbawgyi temple of the Sri Ksetra kingdom of the Pyu people, at that site, there is a sculptured decoration where the arched harp with about five strings appears in a scene where musicians and a dancer are depicted. This site has dated to the early eighth century. Contemporary Chinese chronicles from the same period cite Pyu musicians playing the arched harp, the harp has survived continuously since that time, and has been mentioned in many chronicles and texts

29.
Konghou
–
The konghou is an ancient Chinese harp. The konghou, also known as kanhou, became extinct sometime in the Ming Dynasty. It has been revived in the 20th century as a bridge harp, the modern version of the instrument does not resemble the ancient one. The wo-konghou, or horizontal konghou, was first mentioned in texts in the Spring. The su-konghou, or vertical konghou first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the phoenix-headed konghou was introduced from India in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The konghou was used to play yayue in the Kingdom of Chu, during the Han Dynasty the konghou was used in qingshangyue. Beginning in the Sui Dynasty, the konghou was used in yanyue. Konghou playing was most prevalent in the Sui and Tang dynasties and it was generally played in rites and ceremonies and gradually prevailed among the ordinary people. The instrument was adopted in the ancient times in Korea, where it was called gonghu and it has recently been revived in Japan, and the Japanese composer Mamoru Fujieda has composed for it. The konghou was revived in the 20th century and this instrument resembles a Western concert harp, paired strings on opposite sides of the instrument are tuned to the same note. The two rows of strings also make it suitable for playing swift rhythms and overtones, reflection upon Chinese Recently Unearthed Konghous in Xin Jiang Autonomous Region by Xie Jin

30.
Spring and Autumn period
–
The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 771 to 476 BC which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The periods name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the state of Lu between 722 and 479 BC, which associates with Confucius. The gradual Partition of Jin, one of the most powerful states, marked the end of the Spring and Autumn period, in 771 BC, the Quanrong invasion destroyed the Western Zhou and its capital Haojing, forcing the Zhou king to flee to the eastern capital Luoyi. The event ushered in the Eastern Zhou dynasty, which is divided into the Spring and Autumn, during the Spring and Autumn period, Chinas feudal system of fengjian became largely irrelevant. The Zhou court, having lost its homeland in the Guanzhong region, held nominal power, during the early part of the Zhou dynasty period, royal relatives and generals had been given control over fiefdoms in an effort to maintain Zhou authority over vast territory. As the power of the Zhou kings waned, these became increasingly independent states. The most important states came together in regular conferences where they decided important matters, during these conferences one vassal ruler was sometimes declared hegemon. As the era continued, larger and more powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones, by the 6th century BC most small states had disappeared and just a few large and powerful principalities dominated China. Some southern states, such as Chu and Wu, claimed independence from the Zhou, in Chengzhou, Prince Yijiu was crowned by his supporters as King Ping. The Zhou court would never regain its authority, instead. Though the king de jure retained the Mandate of Heaven, the title held little actual power, a total of 148 states are mentioned in the chronicles for this period,128 of which were absorbed by the four largest states by the end of the period. The kings prestige legitimized the military leaders of the states, over the next two centuries, the four most powerful states—Qin, Jin, Qi and Chu—struggled for power. These multi-city states often used the pretext of aid and protection to intervene, during this rapid expansion, interstate relations alternated between low-level warfare and complex diplomacy. Duke Yin of Lu ascended the throne in 722 BC, from this year on the state of Lu kept an official chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, which along with its commentaries is the standard source for the Spring and Autumn period. Corresponding chronicles are known to have existed in states as well. In 717 BC, Duke Zhuang of Zheng went to the capital for an audience with King Huan, during the encounter the duke felt he was not treated with the respect and etiquette which would have been appropriate, given that Zheng was now the chief protector of the capital. In 715 BC Zheng also became involved in a dispute with Lu regarding the Fields of Xu. The fields had been put in the care of Lu by the king for the purpose of producing royal sacrifices for the sacred Mount Tai

31.
Ming dynasty
–
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule

32.
Goguryeo
–
Goguryeo was an active participant in the power struggle for control of the Korean peninsula and was also associated with the foreign affairs of neighboring polities in China and Japan. The Samguk Sagi, a 12th-century text from Goryeo, indicates that Goguryeo was founded in 37 BCE by Jumong, a prince from Buyeo, after its fall, its territory was divided among the states of Later Silla, Balhae and Tang China. The name Goryeo, a form of Goguryeo, was adopted as the official name in the 5th century. In the geographic monographs of the Book of Han, the word Goguryeo was first mentioned in 113 BCE as a region under the jurisdiction of the Xuantu Commandery, page 33. In the Old Book of Tang, it is recorded that Emperor Taizong refers to Goguryeos history as being some 900 years old, in 75 BCE, a group of Yemaek who may have originated from Goguryeo made an incursion into Chinas Xuantu Commandery west of the Yalu. At its founding, the Goguryeo people are believed to be a blend of people from Buyeo and Yemaek, as leadership from Buyeo may have fled their kingdom and integrated with existing Yemaek chiefdoms. The Records of the Three Kingdoms, in the section titled Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians, implied that Buyeo, the earliest mention of Jumong is in the 4th century Gwanggaeto Stele. Jumong is the modern Korean transcription of the hanja 朱蒙 Jumong, 鄒牟 Chumo, the Stele states that Jumong was the first king and ancestor of Goguryeo and that he was the son of the prince of Buyeo and daughter of the Yellow River deity Habaek. The Samguk Sagi and Samgungnyusa paint additional detail and names Jumongs mother as Yuhwa, Jumongs biological father was said to be a man named Haemosu who is described as a strong man and a heavenly prince. The river god chased Yuhwa away to the Ubal River due to her pregnancy, Jumong was well known for his exceptional archery skills. Eventually, Geumwas sons became jealous of him, and Jumong was forced to leave Eastern Buyeo, the Stele and later Korean sources disagree as to which Buyeo Jumong came from. The Stele says he came from Buyeo and the Samgungnyusa and Samguk Sagi say he came from Eastern Buyeo, Jumong eventually made it to Jolbon, where he married Soseono, daughter of its ruler. He subsequently became king himself, founding Goguryeo with a group of his followers from his native country. A traditional account from the Annals of Baekje section in the Samguk Sagi says that Soseono was the daughter of Yeon Tabal, a wealthy influential figure in Jolbon and married to Jumong. However, the same source states that the king of Jolbon gave his daughter to Jumong. She gave her husband, Jumong, financial support in founding the new statelet, Jumongs given surname was Hae, the name of the Buyeo rulers. According to the Samgungnyusa, Jumong changed his surname to Go in conscious reflection of his divine parentage, Jumong is recorded to have conquered the tribal states of Biryu in 36 BCE, Haeng-in in 33 BCE, and Northern Okjeo in 28 BCE. Goguryeo developed from a league of various Yemaek tribes to an early state, in the time of Taejodae in 53 CE, five local tribes were reorganized into five centrally ruled districts

33.
Triangle
–
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted △ A B C, in Euclidean geometry any three points, when non-collinear, determine a unique triangle and a unique plane. This article is about triangles in Euclidean geometry except where otherwise noted, triangles can be classified according to the lengths of their sides, An equilateral triangle has all sides the same length. An equilateral triangle is also a polygon with all angles measuring 60°. An isosceles triangle has two sides of equal length, some mathematicians define an isosceles triangle to have exactly two equal sides, whereas others define an isosceles triangle as one with at least two equal sides. The latter definition would make all equilateral triangles isosceles triangles, the 45–45–90 right triangle, which appears in the tetrakis square tiling, is isosceles. A scalene triangle has all its sides of different lengths, equivalently, it has all angles of different measure. Hatch marks, also called tick marks, are used in diagrams of triangles, a side can be marked with a pattern of ticks, short line segments in the form of tally marks, two sides have equal lengths if they are both marked with the same pattern. In a triangle, the pattern is no more than 3 ticks. Similarly, patterns of 1,2, or 3 concentric arcs inside the angles are used to indicate equal angles, triangles can also be classified according to their internal angles, measured here in degrees. A right triangle has one of its interior angles measuring 90°, the side opposite to the right angle is the hypotenuse, the longest side of the triangle. The other two sides are called the legs or catheti of the triangle, special right triangles are right triangles with additional properties that make calculations involving them easier. One of the two most famous is the 3–4–5 right triangle, where 32 +42 =52, in this situation,3,4, and 5 are a Pythagorean triple. The other one is a triangle that has 2 angles that each measure 45 degrees. Triangles that do not have an angle measuring 90° are called oblique triangles, a triangle with all interior angles measuring less than 90° is an acute triangle or acute-angled triangle. If c is the length of the longest side, then a2 + b2 > c2, a triangle with one interior angle measuring more than 90° is an obtuse triangle or obtuse-angled triangle. If c is the length of the longest side, then a2 + b2 < c2, a triangle with an interior angle of 180° is degenerate

34.
Nylon
–
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers, more specifically aliphatic or semi-aromatic polyamides. They can be melt-processed into fibers, films or shapes, the first example of nylon was produced on February 28,1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPonts research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station. Nylon polymers have significant commercial applications in fibers, in shapes. Nylon is made of repeating units linked by bonds and is a type of polyamide and is frequently referred to as such. Nylon was the first commercially successful synthetic thermoplastic polymer, commercially, nylon polymer is made by reacting monomers which are either lactams, acid/amines or stoichiometric mixtures of diamines and diacids. Mixtures of these can be polymerized together to make copolymers, Nylon polymers can be mixed with a wide variety of additives to achieve many different property variations. Nylon was invented accidentally by Julian W. Hill, a chemist for DuPont under Wallace Carotherss supervision and it was only given this name at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. The patents were owned by DuPont, Nylon was intended to be a synthetic replacement for silk and substituted for it in many different products after silk became scarce during World War II. It replaced silk in military applications such as parachutes and flak vests, after initial commercialization of nylon as a fiber, applications in the form of shapes and films were also developed. The main market for nylon shapes now is in auto components, in 1940, John W. Eckelberry of DuPont stated that the letters nyl were arbitrary and the on was copied from the suffixes of other fibers such as cotton and rayon. A later publication by DuPont explained that the name was intended to be No-Run. Since the products were not really run-proof, the vowels were swapped to produce nuron, for clarity in pronunciation, the i was changed to y. Most nylons are made from the reaction of an acid with a diamine or a lactam or amino acid with itself. In the first case, the structure is so-called ABAB similar to polyesters and polyurethanes, in the second case, the repeating unit corresponds to the single monomer. It is difficult to get the proportions exactly correct, and deviations can lead to termination at molecular weights less than a desirable 10,000 daltons. To overcome this problem, a crystalline, solid nylon salt can be formed at room temperature, using an exact 1,1 ratio of the acid, the salt is crystallized to purify it and obtain the desired precise stoichiometry. Heated to 285 °C, the salt reacts to form nylon polymer with the production of water, Wallace Carothers at DuPont patented nylon 66, but overlooked the possibility to use lactams. That synthetic route was developed by Paul Schlack at IG Farben, leading to nylon 6, the peptide bond within the caprolactam is broken with the exposed active groups on each side being incorporated into two new bonds as the monomer becomes part of the polymer backbone

35.
Tuning peg
–
A tuning peg is used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrument. It may be made of ebony, rosewood, boxwood or other material, some tuning pegs are ornamented with shell, metal, or plastic inlays, beads or rings. Turning the peg tightens or loosens the string, changing the pitch produced when the string is played, a pegbox is the part of certain stringed musical instruments that houses the tuning pegs. Friction pegs are most often used on violin family instruments They are also used on instruments, such as the Bulgarian gadulka. A properly working peg will turn easily and hold reliably, that is, modern pegs for violin and viola have conical shafts, turned to a 1,30 taper, changing in diameter by 1 mm over a distance of 30 mm. The taper allows the peg to turn more easily pulled out slightly. Peg dope is a used to coat the bearing surfaces of the tuning pegs of string instruments. Manufactured varieties are sold in either a small stick, a block. A commonly used home expedient treatment involves soap and chalk, in varying proportion depending on whether the peg tends to slip or stick, Peg dope serves two different purposes. It both lubricates the peg shaft so it easily in the pegbox and provides friction to keep the pegs from slipping with the force of string tension. Tuning pegs that are fitted and properly doped will both turn smoothly throughout an entire rotation and hold firmly wherever the player wishes. Without the proper amount of friction to hold the peg in place, string instruments with pegs that are slipping can be tuned briefly, but will be out of tune within minutes as soon as the peg slips again. With too much friction, adjusting the tuning at all is impossible, if the pegs or their holes are not perfectly round, or if the bearing surfaces of the pegs are indented from wear, peg dope will not remedy the resulting problems. Pegs for double bass and guitar family instruments are usually geared, machine head Peg shapers and pegbox reamers in various tapers

36.
Grommet
–
A grommet is a ring or edge strip inserted into a hole through thin material, typically a sheet of textile fabric, sheet metal and/or composite of carbon fiber, wood or honeycomb. Grommets are generally flared or collared on each side to them in place. A small grommet may also be called an eyelet, used for example on shoes, tarps, in electrical applications these are referred to as insulating bushings. Most common are molded rubber that are inserted into small hole diameters up to 2 in diameter, there are many hole configurations from standard round to assorted U-shapes. Larger penetrations that are irregular in shape as well as straight edges often use extruded or stamped strips of continuous length. These Continuous length materials are referred to as grommet edging, Grommets are used to reinforce holes in leather, cloth, shoes, canvas and other fabrics. They can be made of metal, rubber, or plastic, and are used in common projects, requiring only the grommet itself and a means of setting it with a punch. A simple punch, often sold with the grommets, can be struck with a hammer to set the grommet and it can also be set with an electronic, pneumatic, or gas-powered machine. There are also dedicated grommet presses with punch and anvil, as shown in the picture, ranging from inexpensive to better-quality tools, the grommet prevents the cord from tearing through the hole, thereby providing structural integrity. Small grommets are also called eyelets, especially used in clothing or crafting. Eyelets may be used decoratively for crafting. When used in sailing and various other applications they are called cringles, sometimes field workers may refer to them as grunyons. If metal or another hard material has a made in it. Rubber, plastic or plastic coated metal grommets are used to avoid this, the grommet could also protect the wiring/cabling from contamination from dirt, air, water, etc. The smooth and sometimes soft inner surface of the shields the wire from damage. Grommets are generally used whenever wires pass through punched/drilled sheet metal or plastic casings for this reason, two-piece hard plastic devices are available which also grip the wire that passes through. These are called strain relief bushings and are used to insulate, anchor. Preventing a tug or twist on the wire from stressing the electrical connections inside the connected equipment, sleeved grommets have a flexible extension, usually tapered or moulded to flex increasingly towards the free end in order to reduce fracturing of electrical insulation

37.
Tension (physics)
–
Tension is the opposite of compression. At the atomic level, when atoms or molecules are pulled apart each other and gain potential energy with a restoring force still existing. Each end of a string or rod under such tension will pull on the object it is attached to, to restore the string/rod to its relaxed length. In physics, tension, as a force, as an action-reaction pair of forces. The ends of a string or other object transmitting tension will exert forces on the objects to which the string or rod is connected and these forces due to tension are also called passive forces. Tension in a string is a scalar quantity. A string or rope is often idealized as one dimension, having length but being massless with zero cross section. If there are no bends in the string, as occur with vibrations or pulleys, then tension is a constant along the string, by Newtons Third Law, these are the same forces exerted on the ends of the string by the objects to which the ends are attached. If the string curves around one or more pulleys, it still have constant tension along its length in the idealized situation that the pulleys are massless and frictionless. A vibrating string vibrates with a set of frequencies that depend on the strings tension and these frequencies can be derived from Newtons laws of motion. Each microscopic segment of the string pulls on and is pulled upon by its neighboring segments, tension = τ where x is the position along the string. If the string has curvature, then the two pulls on a segment by its two neighbors will not add to zero, and there will be a net force on that segment of the string, causing an acceleration. With solutions that include the various harmonics on a stringed instrument, tension is also used to describe the force exerted by the ends of a three-dimensional, continuous material such as a rod or truss member. Such a rod elongates under tension, a system is in equilibrium when the sum of all forces is zero. ∑ F → =0 For example, consider a system consisting of an object that is being lowered vertically by a string with tension, T, at a constant velocity. ∑ F → = T → + m g → =0 A system has a net force when a force is exerted on it. Acceleration and net force always exist together, ∑ F → ≠0 For example, consider the same system as above but suppose the object is now being lowered with an increasing velocity downwards therefore there exists a net force somewhere in the system. In this case, negative acceleration would indicate that | m g | > | T |

38.
Chromatic scale
–
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone above or below another. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the semitones have the same size, in other words, the notes of an equal-tempered chromatic scale are equally spaced. An equal-tempered chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale having no tonic because of the symmetry of its equally spaced notes, the most common conception of the chromatic scale before the 13th century was the Pythagorean chromatic scale. Due to a different tuning technique, the twelve semitones in this scale have two different sizes. Thus, the scale is not perfectly symmetric, many other tuning systems, developed in the ensuing centuries, share a similar asymmetry. Equally spaced pitches are provided only by equal temperament tuning systems, the term chromatic derives from the Greek word chroma, meaning color. Chromatic notes are understood as harmonically inessential embellishments, shadings. The chromatic scale may be notated in a variety of ways, ascending and descending, The chromatic scale has no set spelling agreed upon by all. Its spelling is, however, often dependent upon major or minor key signatures, the images above, therefore, are only examples of chromatic scale notations. As an abstract entity, the chromatic scale is usually notated such that no scale degree is used more than twice in succession. The ancient Chinese chromatic scale is called Shí-èr-lǜ, however, it should not be imagined that this gamut ever functioned as a scale, and it is erroneous to refer to the Chinese chromatic scale, as some Western writers have done. The series of twelve known as the twelve lü were simply a series of fundamental notes from which scales could be constructed. The Indian solfège, i. e. sargam, makes up the notes of the chromatic scale with respective sharps. The total chromatic is the set of all pitch classes. An array is a succession of aggregates and these are 19-EDO just intonation approximations. In Pythagorean tuning the chromatic scale is tuned as follows, with higher than their enharmonic flats. The 12 golden notes of music Hewitt, Michael

39.
Dupplin Cross
–
The Dupplin Cross is a carved, monumental Pictish stone, which dates from around 800 A. D. It was first recorded by Thomas Pennant in 1769, on a hillside in Strathearn, in 2002 it was placed in the care of Historic Scotland, and was placed for preservation under the 11th/12th century tower of St Serfs church in Dunning. The Dupplin Cross is a cross, that is a free-standing stone cross. While relatively common in Ireland, Northumbria and in Dál Riata, such crosses are rare survivals in the lands of the Picts, though fragments of shattered crosses show that a number once existed. Early records report that a cross, Cross of Dronachy, stood on the lands of Invermay, south of Forteviot and also overlooking Forteviot. The cross base survives in situ, but the records do not provide details of its exact form, the cross is carved from Old Red Sandstone, the cross stands about 2.5 metres tall,1 metre broad over the arms of the cross. It is carved with scenes, religious, martial and traditional Pictish animal carvings. The cross contains a partially legible inscription, of only the name CUSTANTIN FILIUS FIRCUS can be read. This name is taken as the Latin form of the early 9th century Pictish kings Gaelic name Caustantín son of Fergus and it also indicates that Gaelic was spoken at the time as it uses the Gaelic personal name of his father in Latin. Other carved themes on the cross include a rider with an oversized head, on the obverse a man fights bears with his bare hands. The sides include a man playing a harp, and hunting dogs, CISP database entry Site visit details

40.
Pictish stone
–
A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. The earlier stones have no parallels from the rest of the British Isles, in The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland J Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson first classified Pictish stones into three groups. Critics have noted weaknesses in this system but it is widely known, in particular, the classification may be misleading for the many incomplete stones. Allen and Anderson regarded their classes as coming from distinct periods in sequence, Class 1 — unworked stones with symbols only incised. There is no cross on either side, Class 1 stones date back to the 6th, 7th and 8th century. Class 2 — stones of more or less rectangular shape with a large cross, the symbols, as well as Christian motifs, are carved in relief and the cross with its surroundings is filled with designs. Class 2 stones date from the 8th and 9th century, Class 3 — these stones feature no idiomatic Pictish symbols. The stones can be cross-slabs, recumbent gravemarkers, free-standing crosses and they originate in the 8th or 9th century. Historic Scotland describes this class as too simplistic and says Nowadays this is not considered a useful category, a surviving fragment may belong to a monument that did include Christian imagery. Later Scottish stones merge into wider medieval British and European traditions, many later Christian stones from Class II and Class III fall more easily into recognisable categories such as gravestones. A small number of Pictish stones have been associated with burials. Some later stones may also have marked tribal or lineage territories, some were re-used for other purposes, such as the two Congash Stones near Grantown-on-Spey, now placed as portal stones for an old graveyard. The shaft of an old cross is lying in the field, another Pictish stone, the Dunachton Stone near Kincraig, was later used as a door lintel in a barn. This was discovered when the building was dismantled in 1870, the stone was re-erected in the field. Recently it fell, after being photographed in 2007, but was re-erected again a few years later by the owner of Dunachton Lodge. Class I and II stones contain symbols from a set of standard ideograms, many unique to Pictish art. The exact number of distinct Pictish symbols is uncertain as there is debate as to what constitutes a Pictish symbol. The more inclusive estimates are in excess of sixty different symbols, there are also representations of everyday objects such as the mirror and comb, which could have been used by high-status Picts

41.
Utrecht Psalter
–
The Utrecht Psalter is a ninth-century illuminated psalter which is a key masterpiece of Carolingian art, it is probably the most valuable manuscript in the Netherlands. It is famous for its 166 lively pen illustrations, with one accompanying each psalm, the precise purpose of these illustrations, and the extent of their dependence on earlier models, have been matters of art historical controversy. The psalter spent the period between about 1000 to 1640 in England, where it had a influence on Anglo-Saxon art. It was copied at least three times in the Middle Ages, a complete facsimile edition of the psalter was made in 1875, and another in 1984. The other texts in the book include some canticles and hymns used in the office of the hours, including various canticles, the latter text was the subject of intense study by Thomas Duffus Hardy and others after scholarly interest in the psalter grew in the 19th century. The entire volume contains 108 vellum leaves, approximately 13 by 10 inches in size, the pages are formed by quires of 8 pages folded. There was probably at least an author portrait of David at the start, the psalter was at one time thought to be a 6th-century work largely because of the use of archaic conventions in the script. The Psalter is written in capitals, a script which by the 9th century had fallen out of favour in Carolingian manuscripts. These are now viewed as imitation rustic capitals, and the manuscript is dated no earlier than the 9th century. The psalter is believed to have made near Reims, as its style is similar to that of the Ebbo Gospels. It may have been sponsored by Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, others have argued for a date c. 850, saying that the psalm illustrations draw from the travels of Gottschalk of Orbais, the manuscript had reached Canterbury Cathedral by c. 1000, at time a copy began to be made of it, this. The Psalter was copied in full three times in the Middle Ages, the copy being the Eadwine Psalter of 1155–60, with additions 1160–70. The last copy is a version in full colour with gold backgrounds that is known as the Anglo-Catalan Psalter or MS Lat.8846 in the BnF. This was half-illustrated by an English artist in about 1180-1200, and completed by a Catalan artist in 1340-50, the images are necessarily somewhat simplified, and the number of figures reduced. It reached Utrecht University in 1716, at which point it was incorporated into the University Library and it was rediscovered in the library in 1858. The Utrecht Psalter is lavishly illustrated with pen and ink drawings for each psalm

42.
Baroque
–
The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories

43.
Mexico
–
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan

44.
Andes
–
The Andes or Andean Mountains are the longest continental mountain range in the world. They are a range of highlands along the western edge of South America. This range is about 7,000 km long, about 200 to 700 km wide, the Andes extend from north to south through seven South American countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Along their length, the Andes are split into several ranges, the Andes are the location of several high plateaus – some of which host major cities, such as Quito, Bogotá, Arequipa, Medellín, Sucre, Mérida and La Paz. The Altiplano plateau is the worlds second-highest after the Tibetan plateau and these ranges are in turn grouped into three major divisions based on climate, the Tropical Andes, the Dry Andes, and the Wet Andes. The Andes are the worlds highest mountain range outside of Asia, the highest mountain outside Asia, Mount Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,961 m above sea level. The peak of Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the Earths center than any other location on the Earths surface, the worlds highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina border, which rises to 6,893 m. The etymology of the word Andes has been debated, the majority consensus is that it derives from the Quechua word anti, which means east as in Antisuyu, one of the four regions of the Inca Empire. In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is considered to be part of the Andes. The term cordillera comes from the Spanish word cordel, meaning rope, the Andes range is about 200 km wide throughout its length, except in the Bolivian flexure where it is about 640 kilometres wide. The Andes are the result of plate tectonics processes, caused by the subduction of oceanic crust beneath the South American plate. The main cause of the rise of the Andes is the compression of the rim of the South American Plate due to the subduction of the Nazca Plate. In the south, the Andes share a boundary with the former Patagonia Terrane. To the west, the Andes end at the Pacific Ocean, from a geographical approach, the Andes are considered to have their western boundaries marked by the appearance of coastal lowlands and a less rugged topography. The Andes Mountains also contain large quantities of iron ore located in mountains within the range. The Andean orogen has a series of bends or oroclines, the Bolivian Orocline is a seaward concave bending in the coast of South America and the Andes Mountains at about 18° S. At this point the orientation of the Andes turns from Northwest in Peru to South in Chile, the Andean segment north and south of the orocline have been rotated 15° to 20° counter clockwise and clockwise respectively. The Bolivian Orocline area overlaps with the area of maximum width of the Altiplano Plateau, the specific point at 18° S where the coastline bends is known as the Arica Elbow

45.
Venezuela
–
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a federal republic located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, Guyana on the east, Venezuela covers 916,445 km2 and has an estimated population of 31775371. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples and it gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. This new constitution changed the name of the country to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District. Venezuela also claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and Venezuela has the worlds largest known oil reserves and has been one of the worlds leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports. The recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave Venezuela oil funds not seen since the 1980s, the Venezuelan government then established populist policies that initially boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, significantly reducing economic inequality and poverty. However, such policies later became controversial since they destabilized the economy, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola Piccola Venezia. The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence, where the suffix -uela is used as a term, thus. The German language 16th century-term for the area, Klein-Venedig, also means little Venice, however, Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that they found people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name Venezuela may have evolved from the native word and it is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish conquest, it has been estimated at around one million. In addition to indigenous peoples known today, the population included historic groups such as the Kalina, Auaké, Caquetio, Mariche, the Timoto-Cuica culture was the most complex society in Pre-Columbian Venezuela, with pre-planned permanent villages, surrounded by irrigated, terraced fields. They also stored water in tanks and their houses were made primarily of stone and wood with thatched roofs. They were peaceful, for the most part, and depended on growing crops, regional crops included potatoes and ullucos

46.
Paraguay
–
Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica. Paraguay is one of the two landlocked countries that lie outside Afro-Eurasia, Paraguay is the smallest landlocked country in the Americas. The indigenous Guaraní had been living in Paraguay for at least a millennium before the Spanish conquered the territory in the 16th century, Spanish settlers and Jesuit missions introduced Christianity and Spanish culture to the region. Paraguay was a colony of the Spanish Empire, with few urban centers and settlers. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who generally implemented isolationist and protectionist policies and he was toppled in an internal military coup, and free multi-party elections were organized and held for the first time in 1993. A year later, Paraguay joined Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to found Mercosur, as of 2009, Paraguays population was estimated to be at around 6.5 million, most of whom are concentrated in the southeast region of the country. The capital and largest city is Asunción, of which the area is home to nearly a third of Paraguays population. In contrast to most Latin American nations, Paraguays indigenous language and culture, Guaraní, in each census, residents predominantly identify as mestizo, reflecting years of intermarriage among the different ethnic groups. Guaraní is recognized as an official language alongside Spanish, and both languages are spoken in the country. There is no consensus for the derivation or meaning of the name Paraguay, the most common interpretations include, Born from water Riverine of many varieties River which originates a sea Fray Antonio Ruiz de Montoya said that it meant river crowned. The Spanish officer and scientist Félix de Azara suggests two derivations, the Payaguas, referring to the tribe who lived along the river. The French-Argentine historian and writer Paul Groussac argued that it meant river that flows through the sea, Paraguayan poet and ex-president Juan Natalicio González said it meant river of the inhabitants of the sea. Indigenous peoples have inhabited this area for thousands of years, pre-Columbian society in the region which is now Paraguay consisted of semi-nomadic tribes that were known for their warrior traditions. These indigenous tribes belonged to five language families, which was the basis of their major divisions. Differing language groups were generally competitive over resources and territories and they were further divided into tribes by speaking languages in branches of these families. Today 17 separate ethnolinguistic groups remain, the first Europeans in the area were Spanish explorers in 1516. The Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar de Espinosa founded the settlement of Asunción on 15 August 1537, the city eventually became the center of a Spanish colonial province of Paraguay

47.
Paraguayan harp
–
The Paraguayan harp is the national instrument of Paraguay, and similar instruments are used elsewhere in South America, particularly Venezuela. It is a harp with 32,36,38 or 40,42 or 46 strings, made from tropical wood, pine and cedar, with an rounded neck-arch. It accompanies traditional songs in the Guarani language and it stands 4. 5-5 feet tall and weighs 8-10 pounds. The Paraguayan harp is constructed in three parts which are never glued or attached in fixed form, the head the arm and it has two legs on the bottom which are 4 inches long. The Paraguayan Harp weighs approximately 8 pounds and is carried via the “arm” the center pole which creates tension between the box and the “head”. Traditionally, in older than 50 years, the strings were made of catgut tightly twisted. However, modern harps made within the last 50 years are strung with nylon strings, the harmonic curve encompasses four ranges from brilliant at top to clear to soft to muted. The head is mostly from native Palo Santo wood. The strings are strung up through the center of the head, tuning pegs were traditionally hand carved, but newer harps employ guitar levers. High end harps use sharping levers, which raise the tone of the string by a half step. The strings are made from single strand imported nylon of varying dimension in the high octaves, the harps range from 4+ to nearly 8 octaves depending on the maker. There are 34,36,38,40 and 42,46 strings, each maker creates a proprietary and immediately recognizable variant to the exterior hand carvings or lack thereof on the head and body sides as well as the quantity of strings. Dedicated players play only their variant of tuned string color codes, in Brazil and Uruguay Portuguese Capuchin missions produced harps, guitars, and violins, based on 16th- and 17th-century Portuguese and Spanish models, for import to European royal courts. These were handcrafted by native Tupi-Guarani workers who became widely respected in Europe for their woodworking skills. It is the symbol of Paraguay. Between the 1930s to late 1950s Paraguayan had influence across the world and many famous Paraguayan performers began with the Paraguayan harp, Paraguayan harp is played solo or in duet with another Paraguayan harp, a guitar or rarely a violin. It often accompanies singing in Guarani or Spanish or a mixture of the two and is played mostly men, traditionally women did not play at all until the late 20th century, Guarani traditions prohibited woman from playing music for religious reasons. There is no traditional percussive accompaniment, the Paraguayan harp, like all Latin American harps, is played with the finger nails, which are kept long

48.
Quechua language
–
Quechua /ˈkɛtʃwə/, also known as runa simi, is an indigenous language family, with variations spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Andes and highlands of South America. Derived from an ancestral language, it is the most widely spoken language family of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Approximately 13% of Peruvians speak Quechua and it is perhaps most widely known for being the main language of the Inca Empire, and was disseminated by the colonizers throughout their reign. Quechua had already expanded across wide ranges of the central Andes long before the expansion of the Inca Empire, the Inca were one among many peoples in present-day Peru who already spoke forms of Quechua. In the Cusco region, Quechua was influenced by languages such as Aymara. The Cuzco variety of Quechua developed as quite distinct, in similar ways, diverse dialects developed in different areas, related to existing local languages, when the Inca Empire ruled and imposed Quechua as the official language. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in the 16th century and it was officially recognized by the Spanish administration and many Spanish learned it in order to communicate with the local peoples. Clergy of the Catholic Church adopted Quechua to use as the language of evangelization, given its use by the Catholic missionaries, the range of Quechua continued to expand in some areas. In the late 18th century, colonial officials ended administrative and religious use of Quechua, the Crown banned even loyal pro-Catholic texts in Quechua, such as Garcilaso de la Vegas Comentarios Reales. Despite a brief revival of the immediately after the Latin American nations achieved independence in the 19th century. Gradually its use declined so that it was mostly by indigenous people in the more isolated. Nevertheless in the 21st century, those speaking Quechua language speakers number 8 to 10 million people across South America, the oldest written records of the language are by missionary Domingo de Santo Tomás, who arrived in Peru in 1538 and learned the language from 1540. He published his Grammatica o arte de la lengua de los indios de los reynos del Perú in 1560. In 1975 Peru became the first country to recognize Quechua as one of its official languages, the major obstacle to the usage and teaching of Quechua is the lack of written materials in that language, such as books, newspapers, software, and magazines. The Bible has been translated into Quechua and is distributed by certain missionary groups, Quechua, along with Aymara and the minor indigenous languages, remains essentially a spoken language. In recent years, Quechua has been introduced in intercultural education in Bolivia, Ecuador. Even in these areas, the governments are reaching only a part of the Quechua-speaking populations, some indigenous people in each of the countries are having their children study in Spanish for the purposes of social advancement. Radio Nacional del Perú broadcasts news and agrarian programs in Quechua for periods in the mornings, Quechua and Spanish are now heavily intermixed in much of the Andean region, with many hundreds of Spanish loanwords in Quechua